‘The coat hanger – the crudest tool an underground abortion can be performed with – has become an unlikely symbol of those demanding greater rights for women n Poland’
Photograph: Janek Skarżyński/AFP/Getty Images

As a Pole, I am proud of the dramatic changes my country has achieved in the 27 years since the collapse of the Soviet bloc. I have watched Warsaw transformed from a miserable, post-communist city into a cosmopolitan metropolis. Liberal currents had been gaining strength, and everything seemed to be going in the right direction.

Polish prime minister favours total ban on abortion

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The new government started by crippling one of the most important institutions of Polish democracy: the constitutional tribunal. Sections of the media were quickly put under government control to “represent Christian morality”, all the top editors replaced by PiS affiliates. Lech Wałęsa’s alleged collaboration with the Communists became the main topic of public debate – a mere decoy while PiS continues to violate democratic values in ways that shock those who look closely.

Yet it wasn’t until the latest political development that I felt a real shiver of disgust towards the PiS government. A strict anti-abortion law (aka the “prenatal life protection law”) has been submitted to the Polish parliament. It will protect the life of an unborn child at all costs, including the distress – or the death – of its mother. Many women had been hoping for the anti-abortion law to change, but this is not the change we had envisaged.

At present abortion is legal in Poland only if the pregnancy poses a threat to the mother’s life or health; if the foetus displays conditions such as Down’s syndrome (and then only if approval for an abortion is given by a medical professional); or if the pregnancy is a result of rape.

A close friend recently had to travel for eight hours to a private hospital Slovakia to have an abortion. After the expensive procedure, she felt fine as her partner drove them back to Poland. But that night she started suffering severe abdominal pain. She realised that if she went to the hospital the doctor could notify the police. Fortunately, the pain subsided and her fear wasn’t put to the test.

A close friend recently had to travel for eight hours to a private hospital Slovakia to have an abortion

The situation will be much more severe if the new bill – backed by the prime minister, Beata Szydło – comes into force. A woman won’t be allowed to end an ectopic pregnancy even though there is little chance of producing a surviving child. You won’t be allowed to abort a foetus with a terminal illness or severe disability. Pregnancies from rape will also be protected. The proposed bill generously acknowledges that rape is a harmful act, but it sees abortion as “punishing the child” for the harm brought upon its mother.

Meanwhile, a legislative committee has been formed to gather the signatures required to push the anti-abortion bill through to its first reading. By law 100,000 members of the public are required to back the proposal within three months. It may sound like a large number, but in 2013 an anti-abortion campaign gathered 1.5m signatures.

It’s not the first time that anti-abortion ideas have made it into the Polish parliament, but it’s the first time that they will be debated in a setup dominated by rightwing and religious voices. If the new legislation comes into force soon, the few critical voices will be silenced – allowing PiS and its electorate to push the country back into its patriarchal past when women were merely childbearing instruments.

With the advances made by feminism eradicated, the voice of reason, progress and human values will once again be stifled.